Name: China's Aristocratic Age. Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period
SKU: 64848067
Price: 99.11 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Yuri Pines
ISBN: 9780691285429

portada China's Aristocratic Age. Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period

China's Aristocratic Age. Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period

Type

Physical Book

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Author

Yuri Pines

Year

2026

Pages

352

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

23.5x15.6 cm

ISBN13

9780691285429

China's Aristocratic Age. Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period

Yuri Pines (Author) · Princeton University Press · Hardcover

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Synopsis "China's Aristocratic Age. Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period"

A new perspective on the Springs-and-Autumns period, China’s longest experiment with polycentrismThe Springs-and-Autumns period (770–453 BCE)—the longest aristocratic age in Chinese history—marks a break from what is often associated with the normative orientations of Chinese political life. During this era, political fragmentation was regarded as acceptable, many states transitioned to oligarchic forms of rule, political participation by lower strata was allowed, pedigree mattered more than ability in determining an individual’s career, and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven had little to do with the notion of universal rule. Indeed, in many respects, the politics of this period inverted traditional Chinese political values. In China’s Aristocratic Age, Yuri Pines offers a new history of the Springs-and-Autumns period, arguing that it should be considered on its own terms rather than simply as a precursor for the centralized and bureaucratized Warring States era that followed. Pines draws on textual, archaeological, and paleographic sources, many of them newly discovered, to examine the political dynamics of the era, which he terms China’s longest experiment with a polycentric world and society. Efforts during this period to establish a viable multistate order, overcome the weaknesses of monarchial rule, and moderate coercive methods of governance have been largely regarded as unsuccessful. Pines explores the consequences of these perceived failures and analyzes the ways negative views of China’s polycentrism contributed to its later quest for political unity and centralization. Pines’s account sheds new light on the Springs-and-Autumns period both within its own contemporaneous context and within the long durée of Chinese history.